Friday, 22 May 2009

The first time I saw this film, I thought it was way too cute and sickly. Since then I've fallen completely in love with it, and I've never gotten tired of watching it. This is the first 9 minutes of so. I've gotten into trouble posting films in their entirety, but you know where to find the rest.

Monday, 18 May 2009

Saturday, 16 May 2009

I'm wondering what to do with this Love The Line blog... I'm wondering what purpose it fills, other than being a collection of things I like. I don't know if I should turn it into a "What I Drew Today" type affair, and have it be about my own work, or focus more on the UK scene, or on small press stuff, or have it be a mixture of all these.Anyway, here's a picture of an Emu I drew a few weeks ago.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Wednesday 28th July – Sunday 2nd August 2009A festival of events over five days celebrating the small press, self publishing and being creative in the print media.

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Anthology Book launchWednesday 29th July7pm – 9pmFreeWe will be launching an Anthology book to showcase some of what’s going on in the small press scene at the moment; it will include work by Mark Pawson as well as a foreword by Roger Sabin and a variety of work from different areas of the scene. The evening will include the declaration of our aims and agendas in the form of a manifesto, as well as talks and discussion on the subject of the contemporary small press scene.

Housmans radical booksellers5 Caledonian roadLondonN1 9DXhttp://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.housmans.com/*******************************************************Are you zine friendly?Thursday 30th July7pm – lateFreeAt the foundry we will be having an evening to launch our idea of zine friendly events! In the two weeks around this event we will be hosting a zine wall at the Foundry and asking artists and small press creators to come down and contribute to this ongoing exhibition. There will be music and good times, the twist is that Zinesters, comix and small press creators are invited by the foundry’s owner to come along and sell their material. There will be a communal table for individual zines and the selling of zines out of bags, or diy carriers is encouraged! After all, it is a zine friendly event, the question is: are you zine friendly?

*******************************************************Spoken Word night out!Friday 31st July7pm – LateFreeIn order to promote poetry in the small press, we will be holding an evening of poetry, zine readings, story telling and other performances from artists creating work in the print media themselves.

Venue TBC*******************************************************Collaborama!Saturday 1st August11am – LateFreeWe hope you’ll join us at the Collaborama (as we’ve affectionately come to know it!) an all day event which will comprise many elements of the small press coming together. Tables will be set out in the main space downstairs at the miller for zinesters, comix and small press creators to exhibit their work. There will also be space where any combination of visitors and exhibitors can get together to create pages which will be used to create a zine of the day. The garden will have a barbeque and the upstairs space will be used for workshops, film screenings and talks. In the evening Resonance FM’s Radio Orchestra will be performing a piece written by Ed Baxter which will be interpreted and illustrated live by two teams of small press artists on overhead projectors!

The Miller96 Snowsfields roadLondon BridgeSE1 3SShttp://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.themiller.co.ukContact – jimigherkin@yahoo.co.uk*******************************************************Alternative Press FairSunday 2nd August11am- 7pmFreeWe will be returning once more to St Aloysius Social centre, where in February we held the first Alternative Press Fair. We hope you’ll join us once more for chilled out Sunday to celebrate comix, zines, poetry, book arts and radical literature. We will have space for around 80 exhibitors and many more visitors so see you there!

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Sunday, 10 May 2009

I've been digging this artwork by Anton Kannemeyer (Joe Dog) and Conrad Botes, from their Bitterkomix publication, which is South Africa’s only independent comic magazine.I've never seen the actual books, because apparently no UK distributor will take them (in fear they'll be stopped by customs).

Friday, 8 May 2009

I spent last Saturday being blown away by the amazing comic shops of Paris...Starting with this place (which I think was called Vendor ICI), in the St Michel area of Paris, and whose large first floor was packed with comic albums.

Just one minute down the road is the large Gibert Jeune bookshop, of which half of the ground floor is given to comics (see below)!

And a just little further on is the great Aaapoum Bapoum... and there are many, many more shops like these in Paris.

And get this ... in the Jourdain area where we were staying, there was a pub that had a comics library and comic art on the wall. People sat with a drink and read comics. Magic!

Thursday, 7 May 2009

"The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format."